December Gossamer Blue Kit!

After a very long personal vacation, thank goodness I’m back to crafting.  I so miss my creative outlet, and more than that, I’ve missed my crafting besties.  We had a entire day on Saturday just crafting and chatting and eating.  I got there late (11:30 am) and didn’t leave until I was kicked out at 1:30 am.  It was lovely.  I thought that the best way to handle it was to take my TWO unused Gossamer Blue kits from December and January, print out some pictures that I’ve been wanting to work with and see what I could do.

Now normally, I try to “match up” pictures and products, make kits for the stories that I want to tell and work from there.  But I’m trying to see if I can make the kits work for me, rather than doing all the work myself.  I think I did ok, but I’ve still got some challenges, especially when I’m not working at home.  The challenge is always how much to bring.  I brought a ton, but not really pulling the product out of my bag doesn’t really help.  I brought so many punches…  Didn’t want to use them, I guess.  I could/should have…  But oh well.

First, let me say that the Simple Stories Sn@p collection was so much fun to work with.  The little tease that was in this kit only made me want to find out more!

I started out with some cute pictures I took of John outside of Notre Dame in Paris.  I was so excited that there was a playground that Sean could play on.  I just wished that there were some children for him to play with.  Daddy and I on that bouncy thing was just hilarious.

Next I found some photos of my nephews and Sean.  Jacob is 15 here, Julian is 22, Sean is the ripe old age of 4.  There are so many days that I wish that he had more of a relationship with his cousins that are closer to his age, and even with these cousins.  It’s just not meant to be.  But dang, I do think we need some other children to help with the family issues.

I used the Gossamer Blue January Sketch challenge here.  I love that they are starting to bump up challenges.  It makes things so much more fun!  I used the December kit instead of the January because of this great Amy Tangerine On The Clock paper.  I borrowed a circle punch and went to town.

Next, here comes a photo of Sean in the dog’s crate.  I hate it, but he loves it.  There was this lovely Crate Paper animal print in the kit, one side leopard, the other zebra.  I just thought it needed some blue.  Add on a bit of a Jenni Bowlin paint dauber…  and PARTY.  Love, love, love this one.  I even used the little velum garlands from Crate Paper in the way that you expect to see them used.  Yum.  Loving on the visual triangle that light blue gives me too.  Sigh, love this one.

Finally, we have Sean, unhappy in his uniform.  I think you really need to show more than just smiles when you are creating pages.  No one smiles every moment of every day, and Sean didn’t smile the whole day.  He hates the uniform.  HATES it.  I really wanted some black.  It needed black to really bring home how miserable he was.  What I love most about this photo is the Polaroid of  me at the bottom, with the words “Love You”…  How appropriate to say “Cheese.”

I loved working with the December kit.  It really helped me get my mojo back.  Thanks again Gossamer Blue for the great fun!